'Truth spoken without moderation reverses itself'
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Friday, March 10, 2017

The judgment of the Gurgaon trial court in the Maruti workers case acquitting
117 workers of all charges has unequivocally demolished the foundation of the
prosecution case. 18 workers have been convicted only for grievous hurt and
trespass. 13 workers have been convicted for murder. What is important to
understand is that these 13 are the office bearers of the Union and the main
leaders.

They have been implicated in the case and management witnesses have
deposed against them because they stand for rights of workers. They are paying
the price of championing the cause of workers. One man very regrettably lost
his life in the fire at the Manesar plant. But there is less than tenuous
evidence to link any of these 13 workers to the fire.

The legal defence team for
the Maruti workers is confident of mounting a very strong challenge to their
conviction in appeal before the High Court. The judgment vindicates our stand
that a very large number of workers were falsely implicated to prejudice the
public opinion and project an exaggerated and alarming version of the incident.

The question to ask today is who will be held accountable for the incarceration
that these 117 suffered for over 2 years in jail. Will the police officers who
arrested them on the dictates of Maruti Suzuki company be held answerable by
the law?

13 Maruti-Suzuki Workers Convicted of Murder for Forming a Trade Union
The ruling of the District court after a four-and-a-half year trial is based on
flimsy and weak evidence. In the course of the hearings the prosecution failed
to establish even circumstantial evidence to show that any of those convicted
in any way caused the violence that took place, leave alone the death. The
ruling also goes against the forensic evidence and post-mortem report that was
placed before the court. Critically, officers of the company, including the one
who lodged the First Information Report, who were produced before the court as
prosecution witnesses denied they were present at the time of the incident.
Some of them even admitted that they were acting under Maruti-Suzuki management
direction.

Of the 13
convicted of murder 11 - Ram Meher, Sarabjeet Singh, Sarvjit Dhillon, Ram
Vilas, Pawan Kumar, Sohan Lal, Ajmer Singh, Sukh Kumar, Amarjeet, Yogesh, and
Dhanraj Bambi - were the office bearers of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union,
who were in place on the day of the incident. The twelfth, Jiya Lal, was the
worker who was the subject of the disciplinary action on the day of the
incident, when he protested against casteist abuse by a supervisor against him
for being a dalit. And the thirteenth conviction of Pradeep Gujjar is
inexplicable since he, unlike the others, was earlier granted bail by the
court.

The
Maruti-Suzuki Manesar plant workers – both permanent and contract – had sought
to form a union of their choice in 2011. The Maruti-Suzuki management with
active support of the Government of Haryana first denied them union
registration. Following months of sustained militant struggle, frequently put
down by the police acting admittedly at Maruti-Suzuki management’s behest,
government finally acceded to union registration in early 2012 but, the
Maruti-Suzuki management refused to recognise the union and negotiate with them
in good faith. The escalation of the incidents on 18 July 2012 was employed by
Maruti-Suzuki management to rid themselves of the union, its leadership and
2,300+ workers who were summarily dismissed.

There was a
common charge against all 148 workers who were arrested in July 2012. That the
court blithely acquitted 117 workers is indicative of the lack of evidence. In
fact the same court denied the acquitted bail. The first of them got bail
through a direction Supreme Court in February 2015 which was 31 months after
the incident. In fact in the first set of appeals for bail against the District
Court refusal the Punjab and Chandigarh High Court while denying bail said in
its written order of 22May 2013: “The incident is most
unfortunate occurrence which has lowered the reputation of India in the
estimation of the world. Foreign investors are not likely to invest the money
in India out of fear of labour unrest.’

Today’s
judgment has arrived at its conclusion by association and not by evidence
severely compromising the independence of the judiciary. The court has taken it
upon its shoulders the task of advancing what employers and the government
would like to tell workers: if you join or form a trade union this is where you
will end. This judgment is a fundamental attack on workers right to freedom of
association. It also confirms that the judiciary is entirely conjoined with
both employers and government in pushing the working class towards
criminalisation for even their just and fair demands that are protected by the
constitution.

The NTUI
stands in solidarity with entire membership of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union
and especially the comrades convicted of murder and their families for their
extraordinary sacrifice and forbearance in this struggle. Your struggle is our
struggle too. The NTUI
salutes the determination of the 25,000 Maruti-Suzuki workers who boycotted
their factory canteens yesterday in a show of solidarity in
advance The NTUI
has from the very start stood with the membership of the Maruti-Suzuki Workers’
Union from the very start. This we will continue to do.

Today’s
judgement is not an isolated event. It is in a continuum of court orders of
recent years including those of Pricol, Graziano and Regency Ceramics. These
decisions cannot be fought in the court room alone but has to be fought in
every factory and at every picket. This too the NTUI will do with every
militant trade union force willing to fight this fight together.